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EDI T ION DW AK ADEMIE | 20 19

After the scoop How investigative journalism affects media Case studies from around the world

After the scoop How investigative journalism affects media Case studies from around the world

Imprint

PUBL I SHERDeutsche Welle53110 BonnGermany

RESPONS IBLE Petra Berner Carsten von Nahmen

EDI TOR SPetra AldenrathNadine JurratAttila Mong

AUTHOR S Mercy Abang Helene Bienvenue Lynzy Billing Francesca de Châtel Renata Galf María Martín Filip Rudič Soha Tarek Zaky Yamani

COVER Andeel

PUBL I SHEDAugust 2019

© DW Akademie

Content

Editorial 5

Introduction 7

Africa 10FrontPageAfrica ― Liberia 11Premium Times ― Nigeria 18

Asia 22Rappler ― Philippines 23Tempo ― Indonesia 30

Europe 36Atlatszo.hu ― Hungary 37KRIK ― Serbia 42

Latin America 48Agência Pública ― Brazil 49Plaza Pública ― Guatemala 54

Middle East 62Mada Masr ― Egypt 63 Synopsis 68

Editorial

During a recent trip to Kenya, I met John-Allan Namu, an in-vestigative journalist in the truest sense. Together with his colleagues he researched the machinations of members of the East African elite during the war in South Sudan. So he started to look below the surface, speaking to informants and digging deep into the available data. The research revealed how pol-iticians and businessmen stuffed South Sudanese property into their own pockets. John-Allan's and his colleagues’ inves-tigations triggered enormous reactions, ranging from over 600 000 viewers of three video documentaries, discussions in the Pan-African Parliament and the British House of Commons, and the dismissal of an involved South Sudanese politician. In Nairobi, Kenyans took to the streets to demonstrate against banks that got their hands dirty.

Journalists like John-Allan Namu and the media they work for play an essential part in our democracies, ensuring that those in power are held accountable. Investigative media not only put the spotlight on corrupt officials or human rights abuses. More importantly, they help kick-start discussions among ordinary citizens about the norms and standards they want to live by.

In these times, as "fake news" has become an all too familiar term in our everyday language, and many people are not quite sure who or what to believe anymore, people who seek to dis-sect fact from fiction help remind us all about the important role quality journalism has to play in our societies. At DW Akademie, our aim is to ensure that quality journalism in general, and inves-tigative journalism in particular, can thrive. Only when it does, can people make informed decisions about their everyday lives.

However, in many of the countries where we work, the basic tools and knowledge are often missing; political frameworks are not supportive of muckrakers; and way too often, media organizations are not willing or able to invest the money and time that good journalism needs to thrive. Unfortunately, being good at your job as an investigative journalist does not neces-sarily bring you fame nor fortune. Instead, it leads to increased pressure from those in power. At times media organizations or their financial backers give in to that pressure, with the result that investigative journalists lose their jobs ― and sometimes their freedom or even their lives.

We will do whatever we can to change that. Our approach is to share our expertise, not only in teaching journalistic skills but also in supporting those that are dedicated to ensuring free-dom of expression, and by developing new ways to make qual-ity media more viable in a fast-changing and challenging envi-ronment. An important part of this approach is a south-south exchange, where journalists and media owners from the Global South share their experiences and discuss possible solutions that they can apply locally.

This publication is a way to contribute to this discussion on me-dia viability for investigative media outlets ― and might also provide inspiration to media in the Global North.

Editorial Supporting those dedicated to freedom of expression

Carsten von Nahmen Head, DW Akademie

5After the scoop How investigative journalism affects media

E D I T O R I A L

Introduction

CRIME AND CORRUPTIONREPORTING NETWORK

“We really want to do more investigative work, but how do I con-vince my media owner that it makes business sense at a time when we are already struggling to pay the bills? And how can you make ends meet in countries where investigating powerful businesses and the political elite might lead to financial ruin?” These are some of the questions we at DW Akademie have been hearing from edi-tors in the Global South.

Investigative journalism serves the public interest: It can lead to changes in legislation, reframe political debates and thereby have a profound impact on the daily lives of ordinary people. This has been proven in a number of research papers in recent years. What has so far not been the focus is the impact success-ful investigative journalism has on the media outlet itself ― its newsroom structure, its business plans, the security and well-being of its staff, or its editorial line.

Restrictive press laws, hostile language from heads of state towards the media as well as government control over big advertising budgets are the reality for an increasing number of media organizations around the world. And even those liv-ing in ‘true’ democratic countries are trying to find ways to compete with the big tech companies turned distribution plat-forms for a sizeable share of online advertising ― and are fast coming to the conclusion that it has become impossible to live off advertising alone. In short: While the space for indepen-dent media is shrinking, quality journalism itself is becoming more expensive and complex. This has been undermining business models and at times, editorial priorities and jour-nalistic quality. For this reason, we at DW Akademie believe that media viability is about more than money ― even though there is no doubt that funds are needed to operate in the long run. The best financial planning will fail if it neglects to take into account the specific political and economic context of the media outlet. This means editorial teams must find ways to build a loyal community of readers and supporters and attract the best talents in journalism, marketing and beyond; and they should make use of technology for more effectiveness, increased safety and to circumvent any restrictions on media freedom. While this is true for all media, it is especially press-ing for those that have made a conscious decision to highlight corruption and human rights abuses, no matter if this is about why the local hospital has not been refurbished or how a pres-ident is spending taxpayers’ money on personal luxuries.

But there is also good news: An impressive number of inves-tigative media outlets have managed to stay viable and grow amidst the most difficult circumstances. On the following pag-es you will meet a bunch of fascinating investigative outlets and the journalists working there who offer a glimpse of hope, by proving that dictators, corrupt leaders and their like will not

always get away with what they have done. They also offer hope for the future of journalism by proving that upholding the true spirit of journalism and maintaining high editorial standards does not necessarily mean going bankrupt. The fact that such outlets exist ― sometimes even thrive ― actually proves the contrary and their examples are an inspiration for everyone facing similar challenges in journalism.

They have proved that investigative journalism can change lo-cal social debates, contribute to policy changes, give voice to the voiceless and bring under- or unreported topics to light. Like FrontPageAfrica’s Mae Azango from Liberia who spares her ink for those who most need it. “My ink is too good for the politicians because their pockets will only get fat. But my ink is good for a woman who is crying because her baby was raped. My ink is good for injustice, (…) my ink is good to point out the ills in society,” she says. FrontPageAfrica was the first in Liberia to highlight the plight of women undergoing female genital mutilation and Azango makes it clear that the weak and the op-pressed can turn to her with their unreported stories.

These media outlets are relentless in their investigations, leav-ing no stone unturned even in the face of danger. Like Serbia’s KRIK which exposes links between politics and organized crime even when their journalists are being followed, smeared on-line, and their offices or homes broken into. This genre of un-compromising journalism in the cause of fighting corruption will usually mean less or no advertising at all; it also attracts threats, increasing the costs of security for the team and requir-ing more and better capacity building. But it might also contrib-ute to a more loyal and engaged audience that is prepared to chip in financially to the costs of the outlet in exchange for this relentless reporting.

They find new, compelling ways of storytelling. Like Mada Masr in Egypt which features sharp-tongued comics, funny cartoons and illustrations alongside their articles. Increasing their audience reach by targeting new demographics such as younger, social me-dia-savvy crowds might make outlets more attractive to advertis-ers, so that chances of their longer-term viability increase.

They show examples of how to use technology in an innovative way. Like Átlátszó in Hungary which deployed drones to inves-tigate the private jet and yacht trips of Hungarian politicians and oligarchs, combining flight data with drone images. As

Introduction A journey of hope

For this reason, we at DW Akademie believe that media viability is about more than money.


I N T R O D U C T I O N

most of these are small outlets, operating on the fringes of their markets, innovation and tech mixed with investigative journalism is the approach which most differentiates them from their competitors. These outlets collaborate with oth-er media, inspiring others and increasing the overall quali-ty of reporting, thus slowly impacting the media landscape around them.

Tempo in Indonesia launched a program which promotes joint investigations with fellow outlets, sharing their independent spirit, the tradition and methods of investigative reporting. Both Agência Pública in Brazil and Plaza Pública in Guatemala have inspired other journalists in their respective countries to launch their own media, thus bringing diversity to an otherwise highly monopolized landscape. Collaboration, local or interna-tional, might serve from a viability point of view as a cost-effec-tive way of producing more quality content. And raising local standards may mean in the long term that the approach of ad-vertisers will also slowly change: they might be more willing to spend money even in outlets where the content is unfavorable to their business, because these contribute to the overall ac-countability in the country.

And they seek new funding and revenue sources, develop-ing novel business models to ensure a stable foundation for quality reporting. Like Premium Times in Nigeria, fighting the old corrupt ways which meant bribing journalists in re-turn for favorable reporting. The business model Premium Times developed offers ways of ensuring salaries and even health and life insurance, hence stability and security for the employees.

All in all they prove that good journalism can mean business, although in a completely different way than ever before in this sector, which was too often under the influence of corpo-rations. Like Maria Ressa`s pioneering team at Rappler in the Philippines, which managed to break even in 2016 by finding a fine balance between offering breaking news and investiga-tive stories whilst appealing to a younger, social media-focused audience. Tempo in Indonesia attracted readers by encroach-ing on the territory of gossip magazines with its investigations into the dealings of the rich and famous. And Guatemala’s Plaza Pública enjoys the patronage of a university, ensuring that all basic costs are covered, leaving the team free to investigate is-sues other media do not dare to touch — for fear of losing their biggest advertisers.

The features you will read on the following pages have been produced by a diverse group of local journalists, who are all familiar with limitations in their work as freelancers. Their diversity in style and perspective brings additional value to this publication.

We are immensely grateful to all interviewees for taking the time to openly discuss the challenges they are facing. This col-lection of features is meant to start a discussion amongst inves-tigative media organizations ― and their supporters ― on how to effectively prepare for the future. All the following examples prove that quality investigative journalism can serve as the unique selling point of a media house. This publication is there-fore an inspiring journey of hope around the world.

Fasten your seat belts ― it will be a bumpy ride.

Petra Aldenrath Nadine Jurrat Attila Mong

These outlets collaborate with other media, inspiring others and increasing the overall quality of reporting, thus slowly impacting the media landscape around them.

All in all they prove that good journalism can mean business, although in a completely different way than ever before in this sector.

8


Liberia

Liberia has a population of around 4.7 million people. The country was ravaged by two civil wars between 1989 and 2003 and remains one of the poorest in the world, with literacy rates at around 50 percent. English is the coun-try’s official language, though more than 20 indigenous languages are spoken by the different communities. The country’s media outlets all publish and broadcast in English. Due to the high illiteracy rates, limited internet access and poor infrastructure, newspapers and tele-vision are only accessible to part of the population and radio therefore plays a very important role in facilitating public debate. Liberia is ranked 93 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2019 Press Freedom Index ― falling 4 places from the previous year. Journalists critical of the government are increasingly facing verbal threats from officials and physical attacks.

Nigeria

Nigeria has a population of about 199 million people comprising over 250 different ethnic groups. After years of military rule, the country has had a democratic constitution since 1999. English is the official language, though more than 200 indigenous languages are spoken within the country. The most common are Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Fulani. The country’s media outlets mostly publish in English, with radio the most popular medium among Nigerians. Although Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa, 46 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty. Adult literacy rates are at around 60 percent. About 28 percent of the population uses the internet regularly. Nigeria is ranked 120 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2019 Press Freedom Index ―falling one place from the previous year. Disinformation by government officials, threats towards journalists and restrictive cyber-crime law make reporting on political issues very difficult.

Africa

GUINEA BENIN

NIGER CHAD

CAMEROON

SIERRA LEONE IVORY COAST

LIBERIA

NIGERIA

Front Page Africa | LiberiaThe relentless pursuit of truth

Despite the repeated imprisonment of the managing editor and multiple threats to staff, the daily FrontPageAfrica continues to push the agenda in Liberia’s media landscape. They know what attracts their readers and main advertisers: quality reporting on topics that have traditionally not been covered.

On December 13, 2018, the editor of the Liberian daily Front-PageAfrica announced that the paper would in the following weeks release a series of documents showing financial misman-agement and corruption in the first year of President George Weah’s government. Voices critical of the paper had demanded that it stop reporting on cases of corruption in order to project a more positive image of Liberia, but editor-in-chief Rodney Sieh argued that this would be an ‘unforgivable sin’. “Shielding the re-alities of corruption and greed from the rest of the world under the guise of protecting Liberia’s image is not the best solution to avoiding the unforgivable sin. Naming and shaming is,” he argued.

The following Monday, the paper released a report detailing fraud and corruption at the highest levels of the Weah gov-ernment. Backed up by a series of official documents that had been leaked to the paper in the weeks before, the first story re-vealed that Minister of State Nathaniel McGill and Minister of Finance Samuel Tweah had signed off on a payment of US$182 000 to a New York-based company which had ceased to operate in 2003. The payment was supposedly to repay government debts incurred during the regime of jailed ex-president Charles Taylor. By Tuesday, McGill was on the airwaves, calling into Liberia’s Truth FM Breakfast Show and threatening legal action against Sieh. He described Sieh, the press in general and FrontPageAfrica in particular as “a criminal entity” and predicted, “Rodney will go to jail. ”Tweah meanwhile accused Sieh of blackmail and said the government would mobilize all its resources to “weaponize against the media. ”

Sieh, a seasoned journalist with more than 30 years of report-ing experience on Liberia, remained unperturbed. “If these people can look at glaring instances like corruption and try to demonize the press and stop them from reporting, only God knows how far they are willing to go,” he told a live audience in Monrovia at the launch of his book, Journalist on Trial, two days later. “This is just one document that I have published that got them running from here and there. Imagine if I publish the other [ones], what will happen.”

Newspaper boy

Sieh is no stranger to controversy, having had repeated run-ins with the judicial system as a result of the investigative reports on corruption among the Liberian elite and government officials

published in his newspaper. Yet he remains determined to con-tinue the mission he started in 2005, when he decided to estab-lish FrontPageAfrica. At the time, his country was just emerging from a brutal 14-year civil war in which 150 000 people had been killed and around 850 000 had fled to neighboring countries, according to United Nations figures. As the country started to rebuild, he felt it needed a media institution that could expose corruption and address the issues which had led to war: Liberia needed a voice, a medium, a forum and a marketplace of ideas that would offer an opportunity for people to air their views and concerns so that we never again had to go through the devasta-tion we had just experienced.

FrontPageAfrica was to be that medium and that forum. Its mission, as described in Sieh’s 2018 book was “to continue our aggressive and relentless pursuit of the truth, expose the corrupt and hold the feet of whoever assumed leadership of the post-war government to the fire.” Sieh’s passion for journal-ism was sparked when he was a teenager: In 1981, his uncle Kenneth Best established a new independent newspaper, the Daily Observer, and Sieh, aged 13 at the time, decided to become a newspaper boy, selling copies of the paper on the

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Impacting the media scene in Liberia: editor-in-chief Rodney Sieh and his staff


F R O N T P A G E A F R I C A L I B E R I A

streets of Monrovia after school. He also spent many hours observing the reporters at work in the newsroom of what would become Liberia’s leading newspaper in the 1980s. In 1992, as Liberia descended further into war, he followed his uncle Kenneth to the Gambia where he worked as the BBC correspondent and also reported for his uncle’s new Observ-er newspaper. In 1994, however, Sieh was forced to flee the Gambia to the United States, as the regime of Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh started to crack down on journalists critical of the military leadership. In the US, he was able to further de-velop his reporting skills, studying at City University of New York and working at several American dailies. Throughout this period, he continued to follow events in his home country and, after the war ended in 2003, he teamed up with two Liberian colleagues and two of his cousins to found a new online news-paper. Sieh initially funded the new venture with a bank loan and his savings. When he moved back to the Liberian capital Monrovia in 2008, the paper expanded to include a printed edition, with a print run of 1500 copies.

Newspaper of the people

Today, FrontPageAfrica has a staff of 28 reporters, editors and web designers working at its Monrovia offices, which are housed in a single-storey building in the Congotown area.

From the very beginning, investigative reporting formed an integral part of the paper’s journalistic mission, with report-ers tackling a wide variety of issues from corruption, fraud and misappropriation of government funds to societal issues such as female genital mutilation, prostitution and police bru-tality. The team used what Sieh describes as “unconventional methods” to report stories, following up on leads provided by members of the public. “Readers and whistleblowers share in-formation with us ― in the form of documents, emails, bank statements ― and we use this to further analyze and investi-gate the story,” he says.

One of the most impactful investigations from 2007 involved a cache of about 400 emails that was handed to Sieh by an anonymous source in Washington DC. It exposed widespread corruption among top government officials in Ellen Johnson

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Liberia needed a voice, a medium, a forum and a marketplace of ideas that would offer an opportunity for people to air their views and concerns so that we never again had to go through the devastation we had just experienced.

FrontPageAfrica reporter at work

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A F R I C A

Sirleaf’s government, which had been elected to office in 2006. Among them was a series of emails written by a former min-ister of state at the time, Willes Knuckles, who had solicited money from foreign companies in exchange for government contracts. In some cases, this had allegedly taken place with the agreement of President Sirleaf. The emails showed that, in one case alone, Knuckles had solicited a US$2.5 million “success fee” from a company that had won a mining contract in Liberia’s mineral-rich western region. Despite threats from lawyers in Liberia and the US, Sieh decided to publish the ‘Knucklesgate’ articles. “It was one of the biggest scandals in Liberia’s histo-ry and it paved the way for us becoming the country’s leading newspaper,” he says. While the President initially tried to dis-tance herself from Knuckles and the emails, by the summer of 2008 ‘Knucklesgate II’ had become embarrassing for her gov-ernment, and she therefore decided to establish a committee to investigate the email chain. This eventually led to the can-cellation of US$1 billion worth of concessions and several gov-ernment officials being fired. Internationally, the President at the time still enjoyed the reputation of a “rockstar”, according to Sieh, but as the years went by and other cases of fraud in the mining sector were exposed, this changed. “Although in the beginning [of the Sirleaf presidency] there was not much atten-tion on Liberia with regards to corruption, I think towards the end one saw that the work we have been doing all along point-ed to some issues of discrepancy,” he says.

Today, the paper is widely recognized as the country’s leading media outlet, setting the national news agenda and shaping public debate in Liberia and among the diaspora in Europe and the US. Over the years, the FrontPageAfrica team has won multiple national media awards, including ‘Journalist of the Year’ and ‘Media House of the Year’, which has raised the bar for journalism in Liberia. The paper and its staff have also won a series of international awards, including the Committee to Protect Journalists’ ‘Press Freedom Award’ in 2012 and the 2014 Reporters Without Borders Press Award. Prue Clarke, a media development specialist who has worked across Africa and followed media development in Liberia for the past 14 years, says that FrontPageAfrica has had a huge impact on the overall quality and breadth of reporting in Liberia. “If you are in a country where no one is doing better than the National Enquirer, then there is no incentive to do better,” she says. “If you then allow a New York Times to come into that mar-ket, suddenly the standard goes up. That’s the role that FrontPageAfrica has played.” Today’s Liberian media scene is diverse, with about 20 online and print publications and around 125 radio stations that broadcast locally and nationally. “Today, you will see quality stories from the Daily Observer and the online newspaper Bush Chicken,” says Clarke. “Eight years ago, you didn’t see anything of quality. The competition now is much fiercer.”

Stories that are broken by FrontPageAfrica are often picked up by other papers, but also by radio stations across Liberia, which helps further boost its reputation. The latter is of crucial importance in a country where, according to United Nations figures, only 8.4 percent of the population had access to the internet in 2018 and literacy rates are below 50 percent. “When we became a print newspaper, many of our stories started dominating the discussions on radio stations, people discussed them in local bars,” says Sieh. “It has become a national phenomenon.”

Meanwhile, the newspaper’s comment section and its Face-book page have become spaces of lively ― and sometimes

Readers and whistleblowers share information with us ― in the form of documents, emails, bank statements ― and we use this to further analyze and investigate the story.

It was one of the biggest scandals in Liberia’s history and it paved the way for us becoming the country’s leading newspaper.

FrontPageAfrica and its competitors

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A F R I C A

fierce ― debate. The paper is also currently working on devel-oping audio and video material that will be broadcast through its website.

“People regard it as the newspaper of the people,” says Lennart Dodoo, FrontPageAfrica’s newsroom chief. “As early as 4 a.m., people are logging on to our website to know what FrontPage has reported. Anyone can come to us with information and we will follow up to investigate whether there is any substance to the information and if so, we report on it.” This unconventional approach, which was adopted from the start by FrontPageAfrica, has yielded some of the newspa-per’s biggest stories, including ‘Knucklesgate’ and the revela-tions about financial mismanagement in the first year of the Weah administration.

Financial independence

FrontPageAfrica’s achievements over the past 12 years are all the more remarkable given the challenging environment in which the newspaper operates. Liberia’s media is ranked 89 out of 180 in the Reporters Without Borders 2018 World Press Freedom Index, with numerous challenges to independent media. The main problem is the lack of financial independence of most media houses and their frequent inability to pay staff. The government remains the main advertiser for most news-papers ― representing up to 80 percent of advertising revenue according to Clarke ― and many politicians also have a stake in a newspaper or local radio station. Negative reporting on government policy or the dealings of individual politicians can therefore result in government withholding payment or a poli-tician withdrawing his financial support as a way of controlling news content, according to Daniel Nyakonah, the secretary general of the Press Union of Liberia. “If you dare to be critical and independent in a media economy where the government is the main provider of advertisement, you run the risk that they stop giving you ads and you slowly go under,” he says.

Lack of funds means editors often cannot pay their journalists for months; as of December 2018, two of Liberia’s main news-papers had not paid staff salaries in eight months. Instead, journalists are often paid by the people they report on, who entice them to attend press conferences or events by offering

payment in the form of brown envelopes filled with cash, or, more subtly, fees for ‘transport costs’ or per diems. There is no independent study on the extent of this so-called ‘brown-en-velope reporting’ in Liberia, which media specialist Clarke de-scribes as ‘bribes’. “If you give me an amount that is ten times higher than my actual transport cost, then I will write positively about you,” she says. “There is no incentive for me to investi-gate the story more in depth or to choose a story that is not paid for.” The result is that many stories featured in Liberian media are one-dimensional rewrites of press releases that lack con-text and analysis. FrontPageAfrica has a zero-tolerance policy towards brown-envelope reporting and has already fired sev-eral reporters over such payments.

But Sieh says it remains a huge challenge. “I won’t lie to you: it is very difficult,” he says. “This country is very vulnerable and we cannot monitor our staff 24/7 to see what they are doing. But we do try to limit it as much as possible.” The low wages in the media sector also mean that journalism is not respect-ed as a profession, with many using it as a stepping stone to better-paid jobs in public relations, the government or NGOs. The average monthly salary for a journalist lies around US$100, which is considerably below the official minimum wage of US$192 a month for a 48-hour work week. This does not cover the cost of living, especially in the capital Monrovia where most media houses are concentrated.

Liberian journalists also have to contend with draconian criminal and civil libel laws, which authorities have repeatedly invoked over the years to intimidate journalists. “Libel and defamation are crimes under Liberian law for which you are tried in criminal court,” Nyakonah explains. “You are entitled to a bond, but if you can’t pay it, you go to jail. And because most journalists and me-dia houses cannot pay, they are basically punished before their case is even heard.” In 2013, FrontPageAfrica’s managing editor Sieh ended up in prison after publishing a series of articles on former minister of agriculture Chris Toe who, according to an audit report, had embezzled millions of dollars of aid money intended to combat an epidemic of army worm. Toe sued FrontPageAfrica and Sieh for libel, and Liberia’s Supreme Court ordered the newspaper to pay the ex-minister US$1.5 million in damages. As Sieh failed to pay, the newspaper was shut down for three months and he was sent to Monrovia Central Prison. “During the period of the shutdown, a lot of my staffers were offered jobs in government in hopes of having me lose them

If you dare to be critical and independent in a media economy where the government is the main provider of advertisement, you run the risk that they stop giving you ads and you slowly go under.

If you are in a country where no one is doing better than the National Enquir-er, then there is no incentive to do better. If you then allow a New York Times to come into that market, suddenly the standard goes up. That’s the role that FrontPageAfrica has played.

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and minimize any effort to resume in the future. All of them re-fused offers,” Sieh remembers. He was only released after four months’ detention following an international outcry. As for Toe, he was later dismissed, though never prosecuted.

In this challenging media environment, FrontPageAfrica has distinguished itself, not just through the quality of its re-porting, but also through its business model. The paper has built a strong advertising base that includes the country’s two main mobile phone operators and several other foreign ad-vertisers. “[FrontPageAfrica’s] big advertiser is Orange, which makes a difference as it shelters [the paper] from the financial pressure others experience,” says Clarke. “Orange wants to be associated with the best media house in the country, the one that the diaspora goes to. That’s why being the leading newspa-per and investigative media house pays off financially as well.”

In addition, Sieh has maintained strong partnerships with in-ternational media organizations such as Thomson Reuters and New Narratives, which provide special grants for investigative reporting projects on subject areas such as natural resources, the environment, women, health and education, as well as on-the-job support for investigative reporting. This allows the pa-per to pay its staff a regular salary of around US$300 a month and remain fully independent, with the freedom to engage in in-depth investigative reporting in a way that other media out-lets cannot afford.

Threats, harassment and physical attacks

Over the years, FrontPageAfrica’s reports have had a far- reaching impact in several domains, leading to the sacking of scores of corrupt government officials and the cancellation of a number of fraudulent concession agreements in the country’s rich mining sector over the last 14 years. FrontPage Africa’s ongo-ing commitment to investigative reporting, tackling corruption and highlighting social taboos means its reporters have over the years been subjected to multiple threats, harassment and physical attacks, in addition to repeated libel suits, staff arrests

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FrontPageAfrica has a zero-tolerance policy towards brown-envelope report-ing and has already fired several report-ers over such payments.

Market stalls in Monrovia

15After the scoop How investigative journalism affects media 15


A F R I C A

and imprisonment. For instance, in the run-up to the 2011 elec-tion, a reporter covering a campaign speech by candidate George Weah was assaulted by a group of his supporters who were an-gry at FrontPageAfrica’s reports about Weah and his party, the Coalition for Democratic Change. “We receive threats every day,” says Sieh. “There are people out there who try to minimize what [we] do and try to intimidate [us] in all kinds of ways ― legal stuff, arson attempts on your office, threats to reporters… We try to stay above the fray and continue doing our work.” While the pa-per does not have the resources to provide protection to staff, it does employ security guards at the FrontPageAfrica offices and staff are encouraged to leave the office on time.

But FrontPageAfrica’s investigations also go beyond politics, with regular reporting on human rights abuses, poverty and other social issues. Sieh has made a conscious effort to hire women and report on women’s issues ― a “radical decision” in a patriarchal society like Liberia, according to media specialist Prue Clarke, where until recently certain editors refused to hire any women at all on the grounds that they were ‘lazy’. “Rodney just said, ‘I don’t believe that, women are half my audience’,” says Clarke. “There was an idea that the only legitimate stories were scandal and politics,” she adds. “Rodney changed that. He didn’t hesitate to put stories about child prostitution and

female genital cutting on the front page. That was radical. Since then you see stories like that on the front page of other papers, too. Because they came to understand that there is a broader range of stories.”

FrontPageAfrica reporter Mae Azango has received numerous prizes for her work on women’s rights and gender-based vio-lence, with hard-hitting investigations on prostitution, police brutality, rape and human trafficking. “Women’s stories were not normally told because many newspapers were dominated by men,” she remembers. “So women’s stories were always trashed. In fact, women reporters were not given hard stories; instead they got to cover parties and social events. They said women re-porters were not tough.” Azango’s own life experiences form a strong driver for her reporting work and her continued focus on women, children and disadvantaged communities. After near-ly dying in childbirth during the war, she was forced to flee to Ivory Coast where she lived for three years “as a second-class citizen” with no rights. When she returned to Liberia in 2000, she enrolled in a journalism school, initially to “kill time and get off the street,” but quickly she discovered “the power of the pen.”

“When I came from Ivory Coast, I decided that I would use my voice for the less fortunate,” she says. “I told anybody and I tell you today: My ink is too good for the politicians because their pockets will only get fat. But my ink is good for a woman who is crying because her baby was raped. My ink is good for injustice, my ink is good to point out the ills in society.”

Azango says she started reporting on women’s issues shortly after joining FrontPageAfrica in 2007, where she received

Sieh has made a conscious effort to hire women and report on women’s issues ― a “radical decision” in a patriarchal society like Liberia.

Breaking taboos and highlighting the issues of girls and women: Mae Azango

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training from Clarke’s media development organization New Narratives. “As women we need to champion the cause of wom-en,” she says. “People need to know what’s happening to us and that it is not only about men and politics.”

Between 2010 and 2012, Azango reported on different aspects of female genital mutilation (FGM), and even went undercov-er to interview women who practice FGM. The reports forced her into hiding for three weeks, but also triggered nationwide discussions on what had until then been a taboo subject. Ac-cording to Sieh, Azango’s FGM reporting led to a landmark ex-ecutive action as former president Sirleaf banned the practice in her final act as president. Around half of women and girls aged 15 to 49 in Liberia have undergone FGM or cutting, but the topic remains sensitive as it is mainly associated with women’s initiation into adulthood. “Before I published the story, it was a taboo,” says Azango. “No one dared to talk about FGM. Not the government, not NGOs, not the United Nations, no one.” The article that was published on International Women’s Day in 2012 told the story of a woman who had been held down by five women while she was cut, and detailed the ritual that was part of the initiation ritual. The report also looked at the health impli-cations of the procedure and the great risks that girls as young as four years old were being exposed to. Following the article’s publication, Azango and her daughter were forced into hiding after receiving multiple threats. But something had been set in motion: “For three weeks while I was in hiding, every radio sta-tion, TV station and newspaper was discussing Mae Azango,” she remembers.

Within a month of the report’s publication, the government announced that activities around FGM were to be indefinitely suspended. “It was the first time in history that a government spoke out on this issue,” Azango says, though she is under no illusion that the ban is actually being upheld and she continues to follow the story to report, for example, on instances of lo-cal politicians promising to shield FGM practices in local bush schools in exchange for votes.

Growing hostility against the media

Since the release of the first documents regarding financial mismanagement in President George Weah’s government in December 2018, the debate about press freedom in Liberia has escalated, with widespread criticism of the government officials’ verbal attacks on the media in general and Front-PageAfrica in particular. In response to the threats from min-isters Tweah and McGill, the Press Union of Liberia issued a statement on December 21, 2018 expressing concern about the growing hostility against the media “from within the pow-er [circle] of President George M. Weah” and calling on the president to “advise his assistants to end their inflammatory comments and actions against the media.” The international media organization Reporters Without Borders also issued a

statement on December 20, 2018, calling on President Weah to keep his promises to respect press freedom and combat corruption by unreservedly condemning the threats issued by Minister of State McGill.

Meanwhile, work at FrontPageAfrica continues as usual, though the team has had to slow down on the release of further docu-ments after two suspected sources have been fired from their jobs in government. To date, no lawsuit has been filed against the paper or its editor, but Sieh says he expects a case will be filed. He remains sanguine about the recent threats by McGill and Tweah against him and the newspaper: “I was expecting it,” he says. “No one who embezzles government money wants to be exposed. So every time you expose these people they will look for a way to fight back.” However, he is determined to con-tinue the work he set out to do when he created FrontPageAfrica in 2005. “We are obligated to our readers to continue our work so that we can expose not just corruption, but also other issues that affect human and civil rights,” he says.

Author Francesca de Châtel is a Dutch-born freelance journalist, editor and writer. She has been reporting from Liberia since 2015.

I told anybody and I tell you today: My ink is too good for the politicians because their pockets will only get fat. But my ink is good for a woman who is crying because her baby was raped. My ink is good for injustice, … my ink is good to point out the ills in society.



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Premium Times | NigeriaPowering investigative journalism is not a smooth ride

“Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching,” goes a popular Nigerian proverb. Nigerian journalism, long the target of power-ful political enemies and disgruntled governments, has learned to adapt to life on the edge by testing new revenue models.

In Nigeria, it appears that there is a renaissance of investiga-tive journalism in the newsrooms. Developments including the 2011 Freedom of Information Act have offered a springboard for this resurgence in investigative reportage across the coun-try. Journalists have been buoyed by recent wins recorded as a result of their reporting in the country.

At the leading edge of this wave is Premium Times, which most recently published an investigation into the background of Fi-nance Minister Kemi Adeosun, revealing that her exemption certificate from the National Youth Service Corps was forged. As a result, she was forced to vacate her position. Founded in mid-2011, the independent news platform notably publishes in-vestigative reports “with a focus on government accountability and the protection of human rights for citizens regardless of re-ligious, ethnic or political affiliations,” according to its mission statement. Located in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Premium Times has no signposts identifying its headquarters which is tucked away, somewhat obscurely, in a residential neighborhood, en-sconced between a gigantic block of flats known as Ministerial Quarters and a Catholic seminary. Premium Times occupies three of the six flats in the building. A finger print access system lets you into the newsroom which contains an octagonal array of desktop computers and laptops in cubicles.

Historically, the two-headed albatross of finance and po-litical interference hung around the necks of media owners has made it impossible to witness the level of independence that is usually expected from the fourth estate. It is gen-erally recognized that successive Nigerian governments, along with their private sector cronies, tend to starve media of their lifeblood by withdrawing advertising ― the domi-nant source of revenue for the publications ― as a retalia-tory measure to certain investigative reports. This was also the fate of the now defunct NEXT newspaper that started up in 2008, the first of its kind in the country with offices in

Lagos and an entire desk assigned to investigative report-ing. It eventually became the yardstick in contemporary newsrooms across the country. But its operations ended barely three years into its existence as a result of accumulat-ed debts. This led to the emergence of new media platforms like Premium Times, which has resorted to a more innovative means of financing its operations. A number of key players at NEXT moved on to form Premium Times but not without a conscious decision to rejig the traditional business model and to also focus mainly on investigative reporting. At the time of writing, Premium Times has an estimated 27 million month-ly unique visitors (December 2018). NEXT failed at a time when the media in Nigeria was also undergoing a severe crisis ― in terms of its revenue models, but also with regard to public trust and ethics.

Premium Times publisher Dapo Olorunyomi believes the media was failing in its duty to monitor the political envi-ronment and it was on this basis that he conceived Premium Times. According to him, the crisis was of an existential na-ture: “We thought that Nigerian journalism was going through a process of ethical challenge of an unprecedented nature,” Olorunyomi states.

Premium Times publisher Dapo Olorunyomi believes the media was failing in its duty to monitor the political environment and it was on this basis that he conceived Premium Times.

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Making the most of the crisis: publisher Dapo Olorunyomi

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Circumventing traditional business models

The Premium Times reporting model advocates for transparen-cy and human rights and in accordance with this creed, its re-porting has led to some of the biggest investigations in Nigeria as it continues to serve as a watchdog to society. Among its key investigations was the 2015 discovery of an arms procurement deal under the Goodluck Jonathan administration in Nigeria that resulted in the embezzlement of US$2 billion through the Office of the National Security Adviser, then headed by Colonel Sambo Dasuki. The story gave an exposé of the activities of the National Security Adviser and revealed how slush funds from the office were shared among politicians for election purpos-es, instead of funding ways to stop the Boko Haram terrorist group ransacking communities across the country, particularly in northeast Nigeria. Besides the debates and conversations generated by the exposé across the country, the story led to the arrest and detention of high-profile officials and actors in-volved in the scandal.

Olorunyomi stresses that “the security sector stories which led to the Dasukigate enquiries had the most impact.” He further points to why stories written at Premium Times are trusted, as these stories have led to changes in government and have promoted open government. “Nobody ever saw the National Assembly budget until we decided to go into intense reporting which led to the campaign to #OpenNASS.” The #OpenNASS campaign, which was started by Premium Times on August 18, 2018 ensured that the Nigerian parliament disclosed its expenditure for the first time after many years of opacity. As a result, Nigerian people now know what their lawmakers take home on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.

As in the case of 234Next, critical media platforms have all too often witnessed deliberate sabotage of their advert-based business revenue. Advertisers are forced to pull the plug as a

result of vested interests, leaving media organizations with a huge backlog of unpaid salaries and unfulfilled obligations. Eventually, many of them simply shut down.

Premium Times is determined to avoid this. With a three-pronged approach, the company has found a model that has helped it sus-tain its operations effectively. For the first part, the organization offers special analysis, data and intelligence reports to its mostly corporate clients across the coun-

try. It delivers these services through the use of some of its proprietary technology platforms. Secondly, the online news platform offers a unique range of advertising opportunities to its clients, leveraging the trust of its millions of readers. The platform is ranked among the top most visited websites in Nigeria, according to the analytics software Alexa rankings (January 2019). Thirdly, the organization has established a not-for-profit newsroom, the Premium Times Centre for Inves-tigative Journalism, which has helped to provide the majority of funding for many of the investigative stories written by the platform. In the last three years alone, the Centre has received just over 1.5 million US dollars in funding from a number of donors including private foundations such as the MacArthur Foundation ($1,200,000) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($499,997), which allows it to cover specific priority areas.

“When we started, our belief was that we must find other ways of making money to power journalism,” says Musikilu Mojeed, editor-in-chief and chief operating officer in charge of the 41 staff and freelance personnel at Premium Times. “We have strict financial discipline, so we are able to pay our bills.” Accor- ding to Mojeed, the Centre obtains the grants and then the reporters at Premium Times are assigned to help execute the projects for which they have been funded. “For instance, if the Centre gets funding to report on a couple of stories in the health sector, it may take two to three reporters from Premium Times and fund their salaries for that period.” Other revenue streams include book publishings and hosting branded events. The Premium Times model offers a lesson in circumventing traditional

When we started, our belief was that we must find other ways of making money to power journalism.


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business models for publishing media worldwide to emulate, with an emphasis on credibility, better business strategy and alternative funding from private philanthropic actors.

For the business development manager and associate editor, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, the integrity and credibility that lets them take a deep-dive into issues makes Premium Times an advertis-ers’ delight because of the growing number of visitors on the platform. Dealing with advertisers for an investigative news platform is not always a smooth ride, given the fact that some of them would try to muzzle the outfit. “It is tricky, it costs us business ― the fact that you’re advertising with us does not mean you will not find stories that are not palatable,” Abdulaziz explains. “There is no hostility because you are not doing busi-ness with us and there are no extra favors because you are do-ing business with us; some felt bad and withdrew their ads,” says Abdulaziz. But nonetheless, Premium Times still enjoys patronage from “advertisers who come here because they know that if it is on Premium Times people will see it and they will reach their right audience,” he adds.

Abdulaziz, who recently emerged as the 2018 Nigerian Investi-gative Reporter of the Year, says Premium Times’ greatest asset

for business is its credibility: “A lot of time without canvassing, people call to place adverts and that is why by any strand we don’t compromise on that because it is our major selling point, that integrity and believability.”

The death of brown envelopes and the rise of credibility

To stay the course as Nigeria’s most authoritative news plat-form, it has been necessary to avoid situations where journal-ists shift focus from altruistic or impartial reporting to waiting for ‘ brown envelope gifts’ ― a common practice in Nigeria. It is a term for the transaction between news makers and jour-nalists, whereby journalists get paid to publish stories. The en-velopes are usually offered ostensibly to cover transportation and logistics after a reporting event or an assignment. While many journalists are involved in this unethical practice, the poor working conditions of press people across the country have continued to negatively impact editorial independence and investigative reporting.

Editor-in-chief Musikilu Mojeed says precautions have been put in place to prevent journalists at Premium Times from taking gifts from sources or anyone at all. “We have remained con-sistent in the payment of salaries, we try to provide other in-centives,” he maintains. “Our staff have health insurance, they have life insurance and we try to send them for training locally and internationally.” This practice, however, is not the norm for media organizations in Nigeria, a country where most journal-ists are not paid at all. “We tell anyone who wants to work here,

... the integrity and credibility that lets them take a deep-dive into issues makes Premium Times an advertisers’ delight because of the growing number of visitors on the platform.

Newspaper stand in Abuja

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we are always forthright in telling them, we are a crusading media organization, we will not tolerate the brown envelope syndrome here,” Mojeed adds.

As a result of some of their investigative reporting, Premi-um Times has won several awards which include, most nota-bly, the Pulitzer Prize as part of the consortium involved in the Panama Papers revelations in April 2017. It was also awarded the 2017 Global Shining Light Award for investigative work on the extra-judicial killings in Nigeria's south-east, presented by the Global Investigative Journalism Network, GIJN. Mujeed, howev-er, says their focus is not about being recognized; most of the time journalists at Premium Times are encouraged not to apply for awards. This, he says, is so that reporters do not develop a mind-set aimed at winning awards, but work hard towards tell-ing the stories that have impact instead. “If awards come, that’s just icing on the cake and that is not something we dwell so much on,” he stresses. “What we want to do is do journalism of impact.”

Defending its journalists

However, in telling stories that dig into corruption, leading to high profile probes and the sacking of government minis-ters, Premium Times has also attracted ongoing threats and harassment by state actors; editors and reporters have been detained. Only recently, in 2018, Samuel Ogundipe, one of its general assignment reporters, was arrested by the police and accused of stealing classified government documents.

His investigation in August 2018 revealed gross violation of the Nigerian constitution by a former boss of Nigeria’s secret po-lice, Lawal Daura, who was sacked immediately following the revelation. Premium Times released leaked letters to the pres-idency signed by the former Inspector General of Police, Idris Abubakar, which pointed to Daura as the architect of a siege on the legislative arm of government. “I was detained in custody with criminals for three days,” recalls Ogundipe, who released the files. “I do feel like if anything happens to me in Nigeria, there won’t be justice and that’s my cause for concern as a jour-nalist.” Though the case is still in court, organizations like Am-nesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) are advocating for the police to withdraw the case.

But the journalist expresses confidence in Premium Times man-agement and says that he is working with employers who not only back him as a reporter but are willing and always ready with legal representation where the need arises. Premium Times has a team of legal advisers on the ground to defend its journalists.

Quality needs capacity

Premium Times is supported by a number of private philan-thropic foundations and development partners through its non-profit arm, the aforementioned Centre for Investigative Journalism. The organization still requires a lot of funding and other resources in order to hire more qualified staff, especially in the important development sectors of Nigerian society. And more importantly, funding is needed to improve the capabili-ties of its investigative reporters in the field of data journalism. Although the Centre currently has capacity for data journalism, it is totally overstretched as it is the only major organization that is helping with the training of reporters in data journalism in newsrooms throughout the country. Apart from raw data, Ogundipe sees Premium Times focusing on another aspect ― providing more context in its reporting. There is much to be done if the news site is to continue to build its credibility and with that, its audience.

Author Mercy Abang is a Nigerian journalist, focusing on underreported or never reported stories on the African continent. She works as an international media fixer and television host with Gatefield Television. She is the 2017 United Nations’ Dag Hammarskjold Journalism Fellow.

We tell anyone who wants to work here… we will not tolerate the brown envelope syndrome here.


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Philippines

The Philippines has a population of around 104 million people, the majority of them living on eleven of a total of more than 7600 islands. The country returned to de-mocracy in 1986 after more than a decade of martial law under President Ferdinand Marcos. In office since 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte’s term has been charac-terized by increased levels of violence as well as verbal and legal attacks on independent media. The country’s official languages are Filipino and English which are also the languages mostly used by national broadcast media. The Philippines enjoys a literacy rate of about 96 percent. Around 60 percent of the population has regular access to the internet. Particularly social media is very popular with nearly 99 percent of internet users actively access-ing at least one type of social media platform on a regular basis. The Philippines is ranked 134 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2019 Press Freedom Index ― falling one place from the previous year.

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia has about 260 million inhab-itants. Its territory comprises more than 17 000 islands and hundreds of different ethnic and linguistic groups. Java, the country’s most populous island, is home to more than half of the population. The official language, Indonesian, is spoken by the majority of inhabitants, often next to at least one local language. The country’s litera-cy rate stands at just over 95 percent. Although the use of online media is increasing, TV remains the most pop-ular medium. Around 33 percent of Indonesia’s popu-lation has access to the internet. Indonesia is ranked 124 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders 2019 Press Freedom Index ― keeping its position from the previous year.

Asia

PHILIPPINES

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Rappler | PhilippinesDucking is not on the agenda

In one of Asia’s most dangerous countries for journalists, Rappler’s female founders are sticking to what they believe is the most effec-tive way to document human rights abuses and corruption: tech-nology. Increasing pressure from the government to close them down is proof of their success, especially among millennials.

High up in a modern mall at the heart of Manila’s business district, overlooking the bustling Philippine capital, lie the headquarters of Rappler. The floor is littered with orange and white balloons, a luminous orange 'R' welcomes you at the front door. Open the doors and you walk straight into a buzzing hive of activity, where editors hot-desk alongside busy reporters ― all of them surrounded by quirky quotes scrawled across the glass wall that separates Rappler’s meeting rooms in an otherwise open plan of-fice. TV screens flash headlines as the team dips in and out. Small groups of young reporters, with computers on their laps, huddle in groups on the floor, energetically discussing their ideas.

Right in the middle of this dynamic newsroom are the desks of Rappler’s founding members, Maria Ressa, Glenda Gloria, Chay Hofileña and Beth Frondoso, who jokingly refer to them-selves as ‘manangs’ (the old ladies). While Hofileña, Gloria and Frondoso cover Rappler’s editorial direction, video production and training, Ressa’s main job is to ensure that the media site remains viable. She is the only one with a separate office.

This encouraging atmosphere aside, a security guard stands at the front door, a reflection on the political context Rappler is operating in. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Philippines are one of the deadliest countries for jour-nalists in South East Asia. CPJ ranks the Philippines fifth on its Impunity Index, which measures the extent to which the killers of journalists escape punishment. Since Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016, violence in the country has increased dramat-ically. According to human rights organizations, around 20 000 people have been killed in Duterte's proclaimed war on drugs within the first two years of his presidency alone. The Philippine President is also known for his hate towards the media, stating shortly after his inauguration that some of the many journalists killed in the country had deserved to die.

To Ressa, this is part of the Duterte administration’s increasing-ly desperate efforts to harass and silence independent media in a way that is meant for maximum intimidation. “Fake News" is how the president has described Rappler, which has become a focus of the regime as it has been investigating corruption, po-lice brutality and other human rights abuses by those in pow-er. The administration also tried to revoke Rappler’s operating licence and its reporters have been banned from covering all presidential events in and out of the country; since February 2018, Rappler has been barred from entering the Malacañang

presidential palace. But this was just a taste of what was to come: Tax evasion cases filed by the Department of Justice in November 2018 culminated in arrest warrants against Ressa and Rappler Holdings that were issued by Rodrigo Duterte him-self. If convicted, Ressa will face a ten year prison sentence.

She heard about the arrest warrant while travelling outside of the country to receive several awards. Upon returning on December 2, 2018, she surrendered, promptly posting bail the morning after she arrived. “On November 8, I received the ICFJ [International Center for Journalism] Award. A few hours after I got the award, the government releases a press release from the Department of Justice saying that I’d been indicted along with Rappler Holdings,” she says. “Maybe they got pissed. What-ever,” she laughs. “I don’t know. Regardless, it was the worst thing they could have done because the timing was just per-fect.” International media from Deutsche Welle to the Guardian and the Washington Post reported on her arrest. Barely three months later, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents en-tered the Rappler offices in Manila armed with an arrest war-rant for Ressa. With the courts closed, Ressa spent the night in the NBI headquarters.

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Welcome to the Rappler office


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In a little over a year, as of June 2019, Ressa and Rappler have battled a total of eleven cases and filed bail eight times. She is free on bail for now but says “ducking” is not on the agenda. According to international press freedom experts, the Pres-ident’s aim is clear: he seeks to revoke Rappler’s operating license so that they stop reporting on Duterte’s murderous drug war. But its founders are adamant about Rappler’s mis-sion. “In the Philippines, both online and offline, the world we live in is ruled by violence and the violence leads to fear,” says Hofileña. “When the government attacks you make a decision: Are we going to pursue with hard-hitting inves-tigative reports against a vindictive government or are we going to duck? And wait it out? Well, you can’t wait this out.” And so Rappler has remained open whilst facing the charges head on.

Strong, smart and dedicated to quality journalism Rappler’s energetic, resilient approach has been characteristic of the company since its inception in 2011. “We’ve walked away from much more profitable salaries because we wanted to be independent and we were willing to take the risk of what that meant,” says Hofileña, who was the head of Newsbreak before joining Rappler.

From the beginning, technological innovation as well as a sound business plan were key elements to securing an independent editorial line. “We wanted to experiment. We were looking at

how technology could be used to help jumpstart development. We were looking at the impact of journalism,” Hofileña states.

Initially, they started as a Facebook page, combining live break-ing news and investigative journalism built for a new online audience. “The reason we combined the two was precisely the context of the market here in the Philippines. You have to get your brand out to build a community and the way to do that is to get good exclusives, insider information, and be the first to go live for any major story,” says Glenda Gloria, now Managing Editor at Rappler.

And Ressa adds: “We were the new kid on the block in 2012 and we inspired the youth’s curiosity with this new technology- fuelled organization, especially because the Philippines is a so-cial media capital.” In the Philippines, 95 per cent of people that are online use Facebook.

The tipping point was January 2012 when the Corona series was the first investigative report published on rappler.com—

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Breaking boundaries: Rappler's founders Beth Frondoso, Chay Hofileña, Maria Ressa and Glenda Gloria with Chairman of the Board Manny Ayala

We were the new kid on the block in 2012 and we inspired the youth’s curiosity with this new technology-fuelled organization, especially because the Philippines is a social media capital.

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an exclusive on Chief Justice Renato Corona’s false doctorate in civil law granted by the University of Santo Tomas. “Rappler was born on Facebook. We tested it on Facebook ― and then we came out with the exclusive on the Chief Justice,” remembers Gloria. “It was our first story― the biggest story― and Rappler was known immediately by the market for this exclusive. In a way, this story gave us immediately a kind of branding that is Rappler.” Since then, Rappler’s founders have built a newsroom of more than 100 staffers from scratch― young and mostly female― eager to learn from Rappler’s female initiators. And while other media outlets have laid off reporters in the past years, Rappler’s senior managers cut their own pay by 20 per-cent to keep their newsroom fully staffed. There is no middle management layer at Rappler, decisions are largely made col-lectively by its founding editors with the aim of maintaining its sustainability as a media outlet.

Today, Rappler is an internationally recognized and award- winning media site. At journalism gatherings in the United States and Europe, international colleagues hail Ressa as a fighter for press freedom. Ressa, a Filipino American who em-igrated to the United States as a child during the Marcos re-gime, returned to the Philippines in the late 1980s. Since then, she has done her share of covering war zones and reporting from the field in Southeast Asia. In 2018, she was named one of Time Magazine’s Most Iconic People. On December 18, 2018, CPJ named Rappler its first beneficiary of a fundraising cam-paign to provide legal support for journalists facing extensive

legal battles meant to suppress critical journalism. The International Center for Journalists and Reporters Without Borders have also pledged their sup-port. Ressa says that this is important— financially, morally and in terms of secu-rity: “It sends a signal that the govern-ment can’t bankrupt us.”

However, Hofileña admits that solidarity at home has been more cautious. “De-mocracy is under threat in this country, the media should be pushing back but we’re not seeing enough of that. Af-ter the arrest warrant was hurled at us there was no strong outburst from the local media. We can understand be-

cause they could be facing the same thing. All Duterte needs to do is to hit them publicly.”

Capturing the millennial audience

As the first online-only news organization in the Philippines, Rappler soon became the platform of the millennials, with the majority of their readers being between 18-34 years old. According to Ressa, this is another reason why President Duterte has been targeting the media outlet. “We feel the re-sponsibility precisely to shape up the generation for the better given the challenges online― how technology’s rewiring our brain,” Ressa says. For her, the Filipino millennials are ambi-tious like Rappler. They know how to have fun but at the same time they care for the community, justice and human rights which are also the values Rappler as an organization carries. And Rappler has been experimenting with different formats, starting out with longform pieces. “We’re in touch with our readers, know what they want and how much they can take,” Managing Editor Gloria says.

After their analysis showed that their readers were just skim-ming through their lengthy articles, Rappler turned to series-led investigations and increasingly to video. Its 2018 series, ‘Mur-der in Manila’, a six month investigation into drug-related vigi-lante killings seen through the eyes of the killers, was broken up into seven parts, each averaging less than 2000 words.

“It’s a chicken and egg thing,” adds Gloria. “The sceptics were discouraging us from pursuing longform because they felt like it would not take off online. But the market will never be ready for anything unless you try it. I mean, in the same manner the market wasn’t ready for something like Rappler. But as jour-nalists, we have perennial faith in the reader. That ultimately, the reader will choose quality journalism.” Rappler was suc-cessful with the adjustments. Not only were readers loyal, but Rappler’s stories covering politicians and the war on drugs

There is no middle management layer at Rappler, decisions are largely made collectively by its founding editors with the aim of maintaining its sustainability as a media outlet.

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also led to a changed and broadened perspective among the Filipino public on their President’s dealings.

One of Rappler’s stories that had a particular impact was an ex-clusive that documented the killing in August 2017 of 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos by three policemen, who were later found guilty in court. It was the first conviction of abusive policemen in Duterte’s war on drugs. When the president’s public popu-larity ratings plummeted 18 points in April 2018, his own Chief Legal Counsel at the time, Salvador Panelo, suggested this was due to the public outrage at police brutality. Although this vio-lence continued, Hofileña believes that due to their reporting, “some of the avid [Duterte] supporters found it a little bit more difficult to defend them.”

Within the niche Rappler has created for itself online, its inves-tigative reporting thrives. “It’s really about courage,” Hofileña confirms. “Investigative stories require courage in any envi-ronment, more so this environment, where you have a pres-ident openly saying that journalists are corrupt and inviting violence.”

Although there is a small investigative team of just five re-porters, all of Rappler’s reporters are encouraged to do inves-tigative stories. “The assumption here is if you’re a reporter at Rappler, you have the capacity or you have the potential to become an investigative reporter,” Gloria confirms. Reporters are told right at the start that they will have to do breaking day-to-day reports and produce in-depth investigative stories, be-cause that is Rappler’s branding. And Rappler’s veteran journal-ists confirm that their young reporters find personal fulfilment in doing so. “We’re growing our own people and we’re building for the future,” reaffirms Ressa. “When we started out, we hired reporters as young as 23, fresh out of college or with just a few years work experience,” remembers Hofileña, today in charge of training and head of the Investigative Desk. “They were very open, willing to learn and had no bad habits. And it was easy to train them. Now they’re encouraged, they’re emboldened; they’re empowered to do these stories.”

Social media ― Rappler’s friend and foe

Apart from the security guard at the front door, the first line of protection is in the digital sphere as Rappler has been the target of online trolling. Digital security consultants brief staff on a regular basis on how to protect digital assets and digital contacts. They also make sure that Rappler’s journalists know how to communicate safely online with their sources, what chat

app to use and how to clean the computer when there is a raid. “We’re also asked to sweep the office for bugs every now and then, we don’t talk about sensitive issues and there’s no [fixed] equipment here,” adds Gloria. All employees bring in laptops that can be quickly packed up.

Rappler’s founders and journalists have been targeted with hate messages, especially after they published a three-part se-ries in October 2016 on what later became known as ‘patriotic trolling’—online hate speech sponsored by the State to silence anyone who was not in line with the government’s official ver-sion of events. Ressa alone received up to 90 hate messages per hour, ranging from threats of rape to ridiculing her looks. But Rappler has not solely been on the defensive and has taken the problem head on. “If you were getting attacked as much as we were you have to understand it,” says Ressa. “We learned about it by living in it.” And so Rappler employees pulled together and designed their own database to track where the attacks were coming from and where and how they are spreading on social media. The results found that the Duterte administration was employing an army of trolls on social media to harass dissent-ers, including Rappler reporters, and embolden members of the public to do the same. Rappler’s findings match those of a 2017 Oxford University study comparing organized social me-dia manipulation in 28 countries, which found that the Duterte administration spent US $200,000 on hundreds of “keyboard trolls” hired to spread propaganda and attack political enemies during the presidential campaign and after he was elected in

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We’re in touch with our readers, know what they want and how much they can take.

Ensuring viability: Maria Ressa

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2016. Rappler’s journalists realized that these investigations into the links between social media networks and fake accounts spreading misinformation are also proof of the abuse of power.

“Facebook is where [the trolls] attack,” says Ressa, identifying that the social network that was the first distribution platform for Rappler has turned into the main source of online threats. David Kaye, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Pro-motion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, stated in the Washington Post that Facebook bears some responsibility for Rappler’s and Ressa’s predicament as it has failed to adhere to its policies and remove false and vio-lence-inciting accounts in a timely manner, even after Rappler repeatedly asked them to― Ressa began engaging with Face-book about this as early as October 2016. Back then, Rappler had already identified 26 Facebook accounts, reaching more than three million users, that were spreading false news and in-citing violence. “We haven’t lost the wonder of the internet but I think the biggest problem right now is that you have so many actors in this sphere but there are no principles that we all abide by. The internet changed the world fundamentally,” Ressa says.

And she sees an even greater threat: “Globally, democracy has been rolled back by cheap armies on social media. Technology companies handle the algorithms that now power our lives. It’s been weaponized by authoritarian-style leaders with the willing consent of the guys who built it.” But Rappler is not turning its back on technology nor on social networks― quite the oppo-site. “Right now, we’re not just fighting a government. We’re trying to use technology in a way that can help preserve democ-racy. If the bad guys can use it, why can’t we use these networks as force for good?” Ressa asks.

To that end, in April 2018, Rappler joined forces with Facebook in an attempt to fight back against the attacks on the social me-dia platform, exposing fake accounts controlled by a network of Duterte supporters. Together with the independent Filipino non-profit media organization Vera Files, they review news stories on Facebook, check their facts, and rate their accuracy, aiming to identify and prevent disinformation from spreading on the platform. “I think change is starting to happen and we’re part of those discussions. That’s what’s exciting now because I think everything we do matters now. And that’s really empow-ering,” Ressa states.

An agile business model

Rappler Holdings is in its majority owned by journalists. Inves-tors can buy shares, but internal rules ensure that the existing

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The business model has to constantly evolve to better understand our readers.

Always ready to pack up: Rappler's newsroom



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shareholders have first dibs at buying those shares. “Assuming one shareholder decides to sell his share, existing shareholders have the right of first refusal. Should an outsider be interest-ed in buying shares, a majority of shareholders must approve. Equally, you cannot sell your shares without the approval of the others,” says Gloria. Long time Rappler employees have also been offered a stock option.

The media organization relies for revenue on advertising, grants, providing data insight, and membership. In the past years, Rappler has diversified its business model in such a way that it no longer solely relies on one revenue stream such as ad-vertising. Moreover, there is a Chinese wall between journalis-tic operations and business services, such as offering PR videos to commercial clients. As of 2016, they hit near breakeven finan-cially ― the same year that they came under attack by the Dute-

rte government. According to Gloria, the business model has to constantly evolve to better understand the readers: “They’re staying longer on this site based on the data we have. We’re not a mass-market news organization so we know that they come to Rappler because of the brand of Rappler and that’s the kind of readership that we want.”

Hofileña is certain that their high-quality investigative reports, checking on abuses of power by the government, as well as breaking exclusives lie at the heart of their success. And Sheila Coronel, former investigative reporter in the Philippines and now Director of the Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University, adds, “Rappler is the canary in the gold mine. It's at the cutting edge of digital and muckraking jour-nalism in the Philippines.”

Ironically, it is Duterte’s attacks that have given Rappler an en-hanced global profile. And its founding members are turning the pressure against them into new opportunities. “In a difficult political climate, we thought what else can we do to grow the business? We have data science and even membership—these are things that we could sell. So, we’re thinking of other options. We’re seven years old—we need to get excited again for new things,” says Gloria. When the government revoked Rappler’s licence, it turned to crowdfunding. In early 2019, it introduced RapplerPlus, a membership program where subscribers get ex-clusive access to analytic pieces and commentaries by Ressa, expert forums, workshops and investigative reports.

In a difficult political climate, we thought what else can we do to grow the business? We have data science and even membership—these are things that we could sell. So, we’re thinking of other options... we need to get excited again for new things.

Investigative journalism meets creativity

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Looking forward

While Rappler may have carved out a unique space for investi-gative journalism to grow in the Philippines, it also welcomes competition. “The landscape and this regime are going to make it difficult for a competitor to grow,” admits Gloria. “Competi-tion is good and there is a lot of talent here, a lot of investment in Asia.” Rappler also has a bureau in Jakarta, Indonesia, and a dedicated section on its website. “We’ve always wanted to go regional to make our presence felt in Southeast Asia,” she adds.

Even under these difficult circumstances—or possibly because of the way Rappler has reacted to them—the future looks chal-lenging but promising. “Rappler is unique because it is not con-nected to the big business houses that own and run legacy me-dia. That gives it more independence and credibility,” believes Coronel. “It can afford to stand up to Duterte.” And Gloria adds that especially in a country like the Philippines, quality media holds an important role: “In a country with weak political insti-tutions, a weak judiciary, you need the watchdog to speak the truth. Since the colonial years, the Philippine media has played a critical role in either bringing down a dictatorship or the tran-sitioning of a new one.” And she is certain that Duterte under-estimates the nature of the Philippine media, which she says is inherently activist. “Rappler is led by women who were prod-ucts of the revolution. We left college when [Ferdinand] Marcos was ousted so we benefited from political freedoms that came about after the end of that dictatorship. And we know how to lose it ― so we’re not going to,” says Gloria.

Ressa is also certain that the current problems can be fixed—with the help of technology, support from the international community and, most of all, their own dedication: “When you live in the world of data the way that we do, you understand the way the world works in a whole different way. I know that this will be fixed. So, we weather it,” she says. And on a personal level, she adds: “Ducking now at the tail-end of my career would make everything I have lived for and worked for meaningless. So, the time to take a stand is now. We are Rappler. This is what we do.”

Author Lynzy Billing is a British feature and investigative journalist based in Manila, Philippines, photographing and reporting on sociocultural, economic and political issues in the region with a particular focus on women’s rights.

Rappler’s journalists realized that these investigations into the links between social media networks and fake accounts spreading misinformation are also proof of the abuse of power.



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Tempo | IndonesiaIntegrity Worth Defending

In its 48-year existence, Indonesia’s Tempo weekly magazine has proven itself a survivor. Amidst times of political oppression and sustained attacks from powerful business interests, it has always found a way to deliver its investigative stories. The secret: a strong spirit of editorial independence, thorough training of young jour-nalists and a clear role within today’s information ecosystem.

As the news agendas of other Indonesian media are becoming more and more driven by advertising in the name of survival, Tempo insists on “the firewall” ― the separation between news-room and business divisions within the company. That attitude is an integral part of Tempo and has become a source of pride. It is shared by every single person in Tempo’s newsroom ― in its weekly magazine, daily newspaper and online edition. “We’ve always been trying to block those business-minded people so they cannot intervene in our newsroom,” says Abdul Manan, editor of the International Section. “That kind of [strong] char-acter has been developed through the transfer of values in Tempo’s newsroom, in our daily routine, in meetings, in con-versations. The idea of (newsroom) independence has been inherited that way.”

There is one incident that Manan always remembers: In April 2006, Tempo published a series of investigative reports reveal-ing a scandalous clause in a leasing agreement for a govern-ment asset in Jakarta between Indonesia’s government and a private company, named The Hok Bing. In response to that re-port, The Hok Bing hired an advertising agency to place an ad-vertorial in Tempo, denying Tempo's reports over eight pages. The price: five hundred million rupiah (about 31 250 Euros). Ad-vertorials are not uncommon at Tempo, but in this case almost all of Tempo’s newsroom staff were angry as they believed that their company was trying to make money from someone that was being investigated by its journalists. The staff openly pro-tested, accusing Tempo of having sold off its integrity and inde-pendence for the sake of a profit.

Following an internal investigation, it became clear that the ed-itor in charge was not able to see the ad material before it was published due to a computer error. Nonetheless, employees involved in the publishing of the advertorial both in the news-room and in the Marketing Department were sanctioned by the management for their “recklessness”. Some staff even got their monthly salaries reduced. A

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